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Big bang unlikely on Scotland's Glorious Twelfth
By Ed Cropley
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Dust down the twelve-bore, pull out the tweed jacket
and train your sights on the first day of the shooting season -- the Glorious
Twelfth is here.
But despite all the pre-season hype which keeps trigger-happy,
grouse-shooting enthusiasts counting down the days since their last whiff of
cordite, this August 12 is unlikely to go off with too big a bang - there
simply aren't enough birds to go round.
Birds of prey and disease have also taken their toll on stocks of grouse, the
most sought after gamebird.
"Unfortunately we're not in for a bumper year," said Colin Shedden, Scottish
director of the British
Association for Shooting and Conservation.
"The grouse breed on a six year cycle, and this year they are somewhere in
the middle. It's not too bad but there won't be spectacular numbers either."
An unseasonally cold, wet spring was good news for trichostrongylus tenuis --
the bug which attacks fledgling grouse -- but bad news for gamekeepers
struggling with a population which was already thin on the ground.
And many of the birds which have escaped sparrowhawks, bugs and the harsh
weather of the Scottish Highlands are still too small to be worth shooting on
the opening day of the season.
"A few estates will have shoots on August 12, but many of them will wait a
few weeks before opening their moors," Shedden said. By then, the birds will
present a bigger -- albeit faster -- target, he hopes.
NOT GROUSING ABOUT IT
The paucity of available grouse hasn't stopped thousands of well-heeled
American and European tourists flocking to Scotland for a trek through the
heather and a shot at what is widely-believed to be the most challenging of
all game birds.
The tradition of the Glorious Twelfth dates back to the middle of the 19th
Century, when the nobility and industrialists of Victorian Britain packed
their bags for a month-long holiday at an ancestral seat in Scotland.
Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert was a particularly keen shot and timed
his summer break to coincide with the start of the grouse season. Royalty are
now rarely spotted trudging through the heather, gun in hand, but the sport
has not lost its elitist stamp.
Top grouse moors will be charging guests around 120 pounds ($180) for every
(two-bird) brace of grouse they shoot, and a party of eight can reasonably
expect to bag 100 brace in one day -- racking up a cool 12,000 pound bill.
The main attraction of Scotland, encouraging enthusiasts to brave the
exorbitant prices -- made worse for Europeans by the strong pound -- is its
claim to be the only place on earth where you can shoot red grouse, Alex
Hogg, Chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, told Reuters.
"You can now go deer stalking in Russia and salmon fishing in Alaska, but if
you want red grouse moors, you've got to come to Scotland," Hogg said.
Meanwhile the 'Inglorious Twelfth' is becoming an equally traditional event
for animal rights groups. The League Against Cruel Sports says that during
the season, which runs until December, more than half a million grouse will
be killed and 3,000 tons of lead shot be deposited on the moors of Scotland
and northern England.
Kenneth Pantling
Nock's Grim Truth - In proportion as you give the State power to do things
for you, you give it power to do things to you; and the State invariably
makes as little as it can of the one power and as much as it can of the
other.
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